Waziristan a Taliban mini state

The news in recent days is that circumstances in southern Afghanistan are getting worse because the Taliban are more secure and more active. As this writer indicates, it is indeed worrisome that Pakistan is making no attempt to control the growth of the Taliban in the tribal areas. What seems obvious is that to the degree that Pakistan fails to do this, Afghanistan, at least in the south, could fall into more open warfare.
RLC

The International News

"Northern Waziristan, where Islamic militants recently signed a peace deal with the government, has virtually become a 'Taliban mini-state' "
"Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan"
"The militants,the officials say, are openly flouting the terms of the September accord in North Waziristan, under which they agreed to end cross-border help for the Taliban insurgency that revived in Afghanistan with new force this year. The area is becoming a magnet for an influx of foreign fighters, who not only challenge government authority in the area, but are even wresting control from local tribes"
"cross-border attacks by Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and their foreign allies have increased"
" In recent weeks, Afghan officials say they have uncovered alarming signs of large-scale indoctrination and preparation of suicide bombers in the tribal areas"
" American military officials say they believe much of the training in Waziristan is taking place under the aegis of men like Jalaluddin Haqqani, once one of the most formidable commanders of the anti-Soviet Mujahideen forces who joined the Taliban in the 1990s. Haqqani bases himself in North Waziristan and has a host of other Taliban and foreign commanders"
" 'Even more worrying is the continued presence of the Taliban and Haqqani leadership networks,' [a] diplomat said, dismayed at what he characterised as Pakistani passivity in breaking up the networks. 'They haven't been addressed at all on the Pakistani side,' he added. 'They haven't been pursued.' "
"The militants rather than the traditional tribal leaders have the power now [in the region]"

Living under the Taliban

This community is profoundly broken by the clash between the government and the Taliban. That the Taliban have credibility, at least for some people in Musa Qala, cannot be good news for the government.
RLC

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

"Fundamentalist rule has returned to Musa Qala – and some residents have never been happier"
"Musa Qala formally fell to the Taleban in February, barely four months after a controversial agreement under which village elders promised to keep the fundamentalists out in return for a British withdrawal."
"While the government tries to decide on its course, local residents have had to continue with their lives."
"Many say they are happier now than they have been for years – and more than willing to trade a certain amount of freedom for some peace and security."
" 'Security is very good: there are no thieves, no kidnappers, everyone lives in safety and is able to get on with their lives. We are all happy.' "
"His assessment is in sharp contrast to official pronouncements. 'We have 900 families registered as refugees from Musa Qala,' said Abdulstar Muzahari, head of the department of refugees. 'None of them have gone back.' "
" Sayed Ahmad Akaa, father of three, agrees 'You could not pay me to go back to Musa Qala,' he told IWPR. 'My children cannot go to school there, I cannot live.' "
"But those who remain say life has never been better."
"Security concerns among Helmand is are wider than the threat from insurgents. Official corruption and police inaction made the cities unsafe"
" 'If the government cannot control the situation, we have to let the Taleban rule,' said one shopkeeper,"

Questions about the fighting in Waziristan

Joshua Foust on Registan.net has also, like David Hoffman [see Ap 10, 07 entry], raised questions about the putative fighting in Waziristan against Uzbeks. He also doubts that we are getting much of the correct story. This seems to me a really significant story: who are the "Uzbeks" and the "Taliban" who oppose each other? Why are there casualty reports but no casulties in the hospitals? How is the Pakistani government involved -- assuming that there has to be a connection? What is the connection of this putative war with the local fighting in Khurram district a few days ago? What is its connection to the rise in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan? Is there a connection to the ambush of the ISI officers in Bajaur district? There are so many instances when the official stories in this region[provided by mainly the Pakistani government] seem as contrived and convoluted as those we are getting out of the Bush administration. Such is the world that we live in, that despite the appearance of a plethora of statements -- an internet crammed with all kinds of stuff -- we in the public remain poorly informed on what is actually happening in the world.
RLC

The puppet who cleared the way for Iraq's destruction

Andrew Cockburn takes out after Wolfowitz in this article. I agree that Wolfowitz had a big part in the blunders of this administration, and that Richard Perle must have had a powerful influence. But now that things are so bad in Iraq, what does it say about these men that they now distance themselves from the Iraq policy?
RLC

By Andrew Cockburn
The Guardian

"Rumsfeld was driven from public life thanks to the catastrophe of Iraq, and ... his deputy [Wolfowitz] ... contributed in almost equal measure to the debacle, yet managed to slide from the Pentagon into the presidency of a leading international institution [the World Bank]"
"To cite just one example ... the First Special Interrogation Plan for use at Guantánamo that ... cleared the way for prolonged sleep deprivation, 20-hour interrogations, and sexual and religious humiliation, along with other favoured techniques ... had earlier been reviewed and approved by ... Wolfowitz."
"...Wolfowitz was even more hands on when it came to Abu Ghraib ... testimony from one of the interrogators alleged that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were in direct contact with the prison and received "nightly briefings" on the intelligence being extracted under torture."
"...Wolfowitz['s] ... entire career, at least up through his Pentagon service, has been in the service and at the direction of others."
"...last year Perle and other leading neoconservatives lashed out publicly at Rumsfeld, deriding his mismanagement of the Iraqi enterprise ... 'Interesting they are not going after the puppet,' "
"Given recent sordid revelations, his role in shredding the reputation of the World Bank and the morale of its employees may be harder to obscure."

US soldiers sit in on local Afghan councils

This article reveals how difficult it is to be an occupying army. The Americans will never really be welcomed there. They do not know the language and apparently in this area have few contacts, "friends" who can introduce them as friends.
RLC

By Jason Straziuso
Associated Press

"To get a foothold in the area, the Americans have to talk with the Taliban."
" 'When you roll in here with 800 heavily armed men, it can cause a lot of anxiety. Until you [talk with them] they're real standoffish,' said Mennes, who leads the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment"
"US and NATO soldiers are increasingly holstering their weapons and attending traditional Afghan lunches and tribal meetings known as shuras, embracing local customs in a land where conversation over tea is a national pastime"
"The goal: to gather intelligence, advertise the aid and development that NATO and the Afghan government can bring, and talk transitory Taliban fighters into disarming. The counterinsurgency strategy is based on weeding out what NATO calls 'Tier 2' Taliban -- poor farmers or jobless villagers who are enlisted by hard-core, ideologically minded Taliban."
"But the American-Afghan lunch showed how tricky such get-togethers can be."
"The US paratroopers sat down with Afghan elders and police to a shared lunch ... But ... the Americans made an unnerving discovery: a cache of rocket-propelled grenades , mortars, and a land mine.Soldiers, suspicious that the weapons could belong to militants,removed them from the police storage facility. The pleasant mood fostered over a meal was shattered."

NATO mulls Afghan poppy legalization

I don't know if I have noted this move. An aid organization has been pushing this idea. This is the first indication I have seen that the officials in NATO and elsewhere are seriously considering this plan. It would be so helpful if the distribution system could be subverted because these are the guys who are making all the money, and it is said they like the instability so support the Taliban.
RLC

United Press International

"Key NATO members are mulling the legalization of Afghanistan's opium poppy industry, according to a German news magazine."
"Instead of selling the poppies to drug lords who make opium and heroin from the raw material, the farmers under the plan would sell them for the same price to an official institution that would relay the poppies to the international pharmaceutical industry, the magazine said."
"Afghanistan produces close to 90 percent of the world's opium, the raw material from which heroin is made. Afghanistan's farmers depend on the income from the poppy production, but the drug business also finances the Taliban in its war against the West.Recent efforts that included burning down the poppy fields -- a U.S.initiative -- have failed to bring about change."

Afghanistan's Wild West

This report reveals how difficult the situation seems to be on the ground in many parts of the country. Various interests are exerting their power, perhaps in some cases in order to keep the country unstable (some Pakistan officials are accused of this), in other cases because old grudges have inspired violence, in other cases because of ethnic tension,and of course in some cases because the Taliban are trying to break down the social order. In the mean time the government seems impotent.
RLC

By Sadeq Behnam and Sudabah Afzali
Institute for war and peace reporting

"Herat, once the most stable of Afghan provinces, is now becoming increasingly dangerous, and analysts say not all the violence is sponsored by the Taleban."
"Herat ... stands at the crossroads of history, bordering Iran and Turkmenistan. Because of its location, it has been buffeted by various ethnic and religious influences which ... are now contributing to rising tensions."
"In the past 12 months, more than 50 people have been killed and at least 100 wounded ..."
"The Afghan government has sought to blame much of the violence on the Taleban-led insurgency ... But local analysts and residents are not convinced."
" 'Herat contains jihadi elements who hate the government because they have lost their jobs' "
"The term 'jihadis' applies to the various armed factions which emerged from the anti-Soviet mujahedin to fight first against each other in the early Nineties, and later against the Taleban. Many of their leaders are still prominent political figures."
" 'People who have designs against the government are able to cover their tracks, so everything gets blamed on the Taleban' "
" 'The most worrying aspect of this is that the police and army also contain elements that are against the government. They have links with the opposition...' "
"Iranian influence can be felt in the Shia community, and there has been some violence on religious grounds"
" 'There are political groups besides the Taleban who are attempting to destabilise the situation in Herat,' said police spokesman Colonel Norkhan Nikzad."

Afghan hearts and minds refuse to be won

So much depends on what we make of what we hear. This journalist seems to be hearing that people are turning to the Taliban, but the specific information he gives is that people are mainly eager to carry on their lives without the disruption of a war. They would like the Afghanistan government or NATO to stabilize their world. I continue to doubt that many of the people in the southern and eastern part of Afghanistan, the Pushtun areas, really want to return to the days of Taliban control. They would like the stability that for a time at least they enjoyed under the Taliban, but do they really want Taliban rules? I wonder. It is important to recognize that in the north the problems are different.There appears to be no sign there of a yearning for Taliban-like days. But they are likely to say what these Pushtun people say: Why doesn't the government provide services and protection?
RLC

By Damien McElroy
Telegraph, UK

"Troops fighting in Afghanistan are meeting resistance not only from the Taliban, but from the people they are there to support."
"Far from being enticed into repudiating the Taliban, elders lined up to complain about the foreign troops in their midst and, more bitterly, the lack of assistance from the Afghan government."
"A combination of patient listening and promises of aid is a well-tried method across conflict zones to win the backing of the locals.But it is a measure of the Taliban's insidious strength to see the combat operation and the community charm offensive in the same walled compound."
"The political adviser to the mission, Ambassador Gulus Schelema,attempted to persuade the elders that the military would not inflict damage to their livelihoods by destroying opium crops."
"Flushing out Taliban and holding the terrain in the Pashtun heartland is proving immeasurably difficult for Nato. In Kandahar, the Canadian army has had to scale back its ambitious plans.Establishing a permanent presence 120 miles north of the city was a point of pride for Nato, evidence that the coalition could drive into the militant heartland.But it proved too dangerous to run supplies to the troops there. The coalition's "assets" have been shifted to corridors around the provincial capital."

Pakistan 'secret agents killed'

The attack on ISI officials in a tribal zone indicates something we have been hearing already: that some people in the tribal areas resent the pressures put on them by the ISI. But that is insufficient to understand what this attack means. That occurs at that particular spot may mean something -- As always, we are unclear what this means.
RLC

BBC NEWS

"Unidentified gunmen have shot dead four officials from Pakistan's secretive ISI intelligence agency in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan"
"No group has said it carried out the attack, a day after tribes vowed not to shelter al-Qaeda or Taleban militants."
"Monday's deal in Bajaur with the government followed other similar controversial accords elsewhere in the tribal region, which critics say have encouraged a Taleban safe haven on the border."
"News of Tuesday's ambush is still emerging and details surrounding it are sketchy.Masked men riding on a motorbike opened fire on the vehicle when theISI officials were coming to Bajaur tribal district from Peshawar Intelligence official Moaz Khan"
"Bajaur was the scene of two major attacks against suspected militants last year, which caused great anger among locals and people elsewhere in Pakistan"
"The officials did not say what the ISI officials were doing in the area.The notorious ISI is a central organ of Pakistan's military machine which has played a major - often dominant - role in the country's often turbulent politics.Critics say it runs "a state within a state", subverts elected governments, supports the Taleban and is even involved in drug smuggling"

History and Sacrificial Death

The tradition and organizational structure of suicide bombing is now so established that it may take years to dismantle it. Here is one more study:

"The mechanism of sacrifice lies at the heart of ideological systems regardless of cultural context. Lives are forfeited and blood spilled-in order to validate the ideology." By Richard A. Koenigsberg
"Surely we imagine--if so many people have killed and died in the name an ideology--there must be something to it"
"Sheikh Abdullah Azzam was an Islamic revolutionary whose thought exerted a significant influence upon Bin Laden."
" 'History,' Azzam writes ... happens when a group produces death and destruction in the name of its ideology. Hitler, Stalin and Mao are remembered--not because of their contributions to civilization--but by virtue of the vast number of people they killed"
" 'Significance' is conferred upon a leader and his ideology based on the number of people killed in the ideology's name. This is why historians are keen to document the 'number of people that died' in a war, battle, genocidal episode,or act of terror."
"Political leaders generate episodes of mass-murder in order to be remembered for the havoc that they have wrought--in the name of ideologies they hope will transform the world."

Behind enemy lines with the Taliban of Helmand

This report reveals how troubled the situation is in the south and east, the Pushtun areas. Note the sense that the "white faces" worry them by invading homes. The Soviets had a much weaker footprint in these areas for much of the period they were at war in Afghanistan. Anyway, not promising news for this part of the country. Reports from the north are different. I have begun to wonder if Afghanistan might be split into two parts by the growing strength of the Taliban in the Pushtun areas.

Independent (UK)

"three members of the Taliban waging war on British troops in Afghanistan tell Chris Sands why they feel they have no choice but to take up arms against the 'foreign invaders'"
"The insurgents' description of life in their home province was far removed from the version Downing Street and Nato officials are keen to promote. As far as these men are concerned, any soldier with a white face is a 'foreigner'. There are no differences between the various countries that make up the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).They spoke of villagers too scared to switch on their lights at night in case their homes are bombed in air strikes; troops deliberately shooting civilians; and members of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance using their new roles in the Afghan army to persecute the Pashtun population."
" 'Everyone has picked up a gun. What else can we do? We cannot bear it any more. When the foreigners first came we thought maybe they wanted to build the country, but what have they done in the last five years?They have done nothing so we have to stand against them. They have killed innocent people, occupied the country and now jihad is demanded of us.' "
" 'We have to fight because even if we don't we will be killed' "
"A recent survey by the Senlis Council think-tank found 80 per cent of men in Helmand and Kandahar believe the international troops are not helping them personally, while 71 per cent believe the Afghangovernment is also unhelpful"
"Ghulam ... is from Lashkar Gah, Helmand, and, like the other two Talibs, he describes the situation in the province as unbearable.'The worst time I have experienced in my life is now,' he said. 'It's worse than when the Russians were here. The Russians treated us well,they never went into our houses. Now the foreigners go into houses,disturb the women and kill innocent people.' "

Boy-Taliban

Pakistan seems to be ever more conflicted. This story of such criminal use of a child to execute someone -- apparently with no appropriate trial -- offends all notions of virtue. What is worth noting, however, is the reaction of the major news outlets in Pakistan: they are all shocked. The sense of offense and outrage expressed in the Pakistan media represents the true moral sentiment of the Pakistani people generally. It is safe to say that the ordinary Pakistani people -- whatever their opinions about the West or George Bush or Israel or any of the hot button issues invoked by extremists -- have no respect for those criminals who do heinous things in the name of a religious faith. Whatever the faith, none would countenance this use of a child. I suspect that many Pakistanis feel trapped and ashamed of the extreme militants now operating, apparently with impunity, in the Tribal Areas. Musharraf objects to those who blame Pakistan for cross-border incursions by suicide bombers and yet seems unable [unwilling?] to address the criminal behavior of militants who are being sheltered by some of the Pushtun tribes along the Afghanistan border.
RLC

Shock in Pakistan at militant video of boy beheading 'US spy'
Asia World News

"Media in Pakistan on Sunday condemned a video in circulation that appears to show Taliban fighters urging on a boy of around 12 as he beheads a Pakistani militant accused of being a US spy."
"Shot at an undisclosed location, the footage dubbed with jihadi songs and tributes to Taliban leaders shows the last minutes of a man identified as a Taliban traitor."
"The video shows the man being blindfolded with a scarf and making a confession. The boy then denounces him as a spy and cuts off his head with a hunting knife to shouts of "Allahu Akbar" - God is great."

Pakistan: 'Child executioner beheads militant'
Irish Examiner

"A grisly video circulating in Pakistan allegedly shows a child beheading Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official killed in a December air strike in Afghanistan."
"A continuous two and a half-minute shot ... shows the victim lying on his side on a patch of rubble-strewn ground. A man holds Nabi by his beard while the boy ... performs the beheading."
" 'This is outright barbarism,' Iqbal Haider, secretary-general of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said after seeing the video."
" 'Whosoever has committed this, whether they are Taliban or anybody else or any Afghan or al-Qaida or anybody, they are enemy number one of the Muslims.' "
"The video accuses Nabi of responsibility for a US air strike that killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, who was regarded as one of the top three associates of Omar, the Taliban supreme leader. He was hit while travelling by car in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on December 19."

A Taliban leader in Pakistan says he would aid bin Laden

The news about the struggle in Pakistan's tribal areas now takes a curious turn: Mullah Nazir, said to be the leader of the fight against the "Uzbeks" in the tribal areas, says he was fighting the Uzbeks because they 'refused to fight in Afghanistan.' So the war, he says, was over getting more people to fight the Americans and NATO rather than a diversion from the fight. The Pakistanis have been claiming that the fighting in South Waziristan is a positive result of the deal they made with the Pushtun tribesmen to withdraw their troops from the Tribal Areas if the tribesmen promised to give up their cross-border attacks. Mysteries still abound.
RLC

By Carlotta Gall
New York Times

"A Pakistani Taliban leader who has been waging a government-backed campaign to evict Central Asian militants from Pakistan's tribal regions said Friday that he would give Osama bin Laden protection in his area if he sought it"
"Al Qaeda's top leaders ... are widely believed to be ... in Pakistan's seven tribal areas ... along the Afghan border. Much of the area is ... used by pro-Taliban militants to run training camps and mount cross border insurgency operations into Afghanistan"
"The Pakistani government has championed [the Taliban commander] Mr.Nazir and backed him in his campaign against the Central Asian militants in his tribal region of South Waziristan"
"Yet, Mr. Nazir has always supported holy war against foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan. He said he rallied Pakistani tribesmen against the Central Asian militants, predominately Uzbeks, because they refused to fight in Afghanistan."

Taliban flee Afghan-led Nato offensive

Note here the contradictory situation for those fighting for the Afghanistan government: they must oppose the Taliban, and they must protect the poppy crop.
RLC

By Tom Coghlan
The Telegraph (UK)

"Complete success is being claimed for the largest Afghan-led operation yet against the Taliban."
"Afghan army forces and police have now purged the Nad Ali district of Helmand of 400 Taliban fighters, following a series of chaotic battles."
"The operation, which began last week ... was also backed by local militias, whose commanders had sworn to remove the Taliban from their land"
"The success means that much needed-reconstruction projects, postponed for months due to the Taliban presence, can now begin as planned."
"Important to the success of the operation was the front line role of the local militias."
"Their fighters have local knowledge ... heavily armed,wild-looking youngsters in local garb and sunglasses"

Music and the Taliban disease

Another report on conditions in the tribal areas. It is important to distinguish this social situation from "freedom". This is not a "lawless" society and it is not "free". There is a hierarchy of influence and authority in place in this society and with it there is a corresponding hierarchy of coercive measures standing behind it. They are operating -- and must be continuously operative in order to keep on producing -- this "Taliban society". Even so, in the face of possible reprisal [?] some individuals, even here, are willing to hint at their rejection of the system in place. If we are to understand social situations we must critically distinguish between the coercive means imposed on collectivities by those in power and [in contrast] the more authentic judgments and voluntary reactions of individuals who must live within the system. Such people well understand the risks entailed in expressing their own opinions; they know the potential costs that may be invisible to the outside observer. Will those who hinted disapproval pay a price for this?
RLC

No more music in this town
By Graham Usher
Al-Ahram Weekly

"Six years after the Taliban was removed from Kabul, Talibanisation is reviving -- in Pakistan"
"During its rule in Afghanistan the Taliban banned music and the employment and education of women. Such practices were 'un-Islamic',said its leaders. Others called their prohibitive and primitive interpretation of Islam "Talibanisation". The Taliban regime was ousted in November 2001, when US-led forces invaded Kabul in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks. But Talibanisation persists -- not in Afghanistan but in Pakistan."
"Its bases are the remote tribal areas piled up against Pakistan's mountainous border with Afghanistan"
"Two months ago religious students or Taliban began 'vice' patrols. One of their first edicts was to ban music."
"Zai-ul-uddin is a singer from Lakki Marwat. He used to perform at weddings with a full band of flute, drum and harmonium. No longer. 'I didn't receive any notice. I was simply told -- no more music in this town. I complied,' he says guiltily."
"Unchecked by police and state the disease will spread. On 18 March Bashir Hussein's music store in Peshawar was firebombed by a group calling themselves the mujahadeen but assumed to be the Taliban. It was the first time a music store had been hit in this sprawling,ancient city, known, among many other things, for its music. 'It won't be the last,' says Bashir."

NATO troops earn resentment of frustrated Afghans

Here again is more of the same: the populations in eastern and southern Afghanistan are being brutalized by raids from neighboring areas in Pakistan but are disgusted with the NATO and American forces on their side of the border who can't seem to get it right. They are not protecting adequately and when they do do something they end up brutalizing even their friends. For the people on the ground it would seem to be a hopeless situation.
RLC

By David Morgan
Reuters

"Foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan are beginning to draw the resentment of Afghans fed up with growing civilian casualties and the lack of material progress in their lives"
"...villagers who have suffered from Western military firepower have responded to the Taliban's call to arms against foreign troops..."
" 'There is growing resentment because of the kinds of military operations that have been carried out, not because of the international troop presence,' Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for International Crisis Group think tank"
"Ahmed ... cited bombing raids based on faulty intelligence that have killed innocent villagers and shootings of innocent civilians by panicky troops..."
"Violence in Afghanistan last year was the worst since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001. About one-quarter of the 4,000people killed in 2006 were civilians."
"The warnings about eroding support came as NATO commanders conducted a spring offensive code-named Operation Achilles against Taliban strongholds in a bid to pre-empt an expected warmer weather seasonal campaign by Islamist militants."

Pakistan Tries to Negotiate Peace in Tribal Areas

Here is another report on attempts to bring conditions in the tribal areas under some kind of control, to restrain the cross-border attacks on civilians in Afghanistan. That conditions are as yet not under control seems to be now recognized, or rather admitted, by some officials in Pakistan. We can only hope that these new measures will work.
RLC

Voice of America
By Benjamin Sand

"Pakistan is trying a new approach of negotiations and development projects to secure its volatile tribal regions. But U.S. and Afghan officials are concerned it will not be enough to keep Taleban militants from using the area to as a launch pad for attacks in Afghanistan."
"Pakistani authorities this week signed their third peace agreement with local leaders in the often-lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan."
"Army spokesman Major General Wahid Arshad says tribesmen in the Bajur region have agreed to sever ties with foreign militants"
" The Bajur deal is part of a new strategy, using negotiations,development projects and other enticements to break ties between area residents and the Taleban."
"Towns and villages all along the rugged area have been overrun by the Islamist hard-liners. Residents say some villages have become little more than jihadist way stations in the fight against U.S. forces in Afghanistan."
"General Arshad says under the new strategy, 80,000 troops in the tribal area will continue to pressure militants, while the government focuses on wooing residents"
"U.S. officials, however, are among those who are not convinced by the new strategy."
"The concern here is more immediate. U.S. defense experts say Taleban insurgents are massing along the border and could be days away from anew offensive against U.S. and Afghan forces."
"Against that backdrop, the latest peace agreement in the tribal areas is likely to generate more concern, not less, about Pakistan's commitment to securing the tribal region"

Afghanistan: 'Two feet and a lot of skin'

The Pakistan government has consistently denied that there are cross-border excursions of militants into Afghanistan from Pakistan's tribal areas but the detailed reports coming out of Afghanistan about the number of such attacks, and now of suicide bombers, are too numerous to doubt that they are taking place in large numbers. It is hard to conceive of this practice -- the production and deployment of suicide bombers by militant leaders comfortably ensconced in Pakistan -- without wondering what it in fact will do to the public sense of what this radical movement stands for. The incident below of a father hearing the usual platitudes from a mullah to whom he has committed his son for education and care suggests that the father had no idea of and no consent to the way his son was educated and deployed in what some are calling a holy war. What will be this father's judgment of these people? In the end, despite the horror and the brutality and the coercive measures being taken, these measures can only redound the shame of the radical movement itself.
RLC

By Philip Smucker
Asia Times Online

"Just in tiny Khost province alone ... there have been two dozen suicide bomb attacks in the past year."
"The figure spiked late in the year because of a 'peace deal' signed between Pakistan's government and tribal elders of North Waziristan..."
"As elsewhere in the Islamic world, al-Qaeda is a facilitator of terror, rarely the direct instigator. Bin Laden's experts corral anti-American sentiment within disparate, home-grown Islamic groups and launch young men over the mountains toward martyrdom. At least some of them are being pushed across the border with a blessing from Egyptian Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's ... ideological lieutenant"
"More than 1,000 persons cross legally every day from Pakistan into Khost. Even if the Afghans knew who the bombers were, they would be hard pressed to "catch up to their Japanese motorcycles on our cheap Pakistani imitations", said Major Bismullah, who travels to and from work with his two heavily armed sons."
"None of the bombers entering Khost has been captured alive, a credit to their well-crafted detonation devices that allow them to blow themselves up by pressing a button - usually positioned on the arm or wrist."
"At a recent rally of tribal elders in the soccer stadium, the governor asked the US military to back off from security detail as away of showing that Afghans are taking the lead in fighting the phenomenon.Authorities in Pakistan, though, take the opposite tack."
"In Waziristan, al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, mimicking similar martyrdom celebrations in the West Bank and parts of the Arab world,throw lavish parties for the families of the bombers, said Afghan intelligence officials."
"But such morbid celebrations for the departed do not necessarily soothe the hearts of relatives. A religious leader in Khost recounts the story of an Afghan father in Waziristan. He had just sent his son off to a madrassa and left to work in Saudi Arabia to support the family. When he returned, he asked the mullah at the madrassa how his son had done in school. The mullah said, "He has done so well that he has been sent to heaven." The father collapsed and began to pull out his hair."

Ahmadzai tribe asks Pakistan government for help

The news that the Ahmadzai tribe in the Tribal Areas want's the Pakistan government to come in and help them establish their affairs is an amazing sign of how much seems to be roiling the tribal areas just now. I only wish we had access to reliable information on what is going on there. Again, these are not "lawless" tribes but tribes who have been allowed to govern their internal affairs according to tribal custom -- which claims to be traditional but no doubt is constantly changing with the times. That the elders of the Ahmadzais would ask for help reveals how responsive they can be to circumstancial pressures, and how likely it could be that some of their practices may be changing.

"One of the main tribes in Pakistan's tense border region with Afghanistan has urged Islamabad to resume control of law and order in the area."
"...in South Waziristan ... Pakistan ceded control of security to pro-Taleban militants in the area after a controversial 2004 peace deal."
"Critics said it gave Taleban and al-Qaeda militants a safe haven..."
"Pakistan's government maintains that most insurgent attacks in Afghanistan are carried out by militants based in that country."
"President Musharraf sent troops into the lawless tribal area to hunt foreign militants and ... More than 700 Pakistani security personnel have been killed since 2002, prompting the government to negotiate the contentious peace deals ... troops were to maintain a reduced presence and tribesmen promised either not to harbour foreign fighters or to ensure they did not engage in militancy."
"But at a meeting on Sunday, the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe reversed the deal and undertook not to shelter Uzbek militants and their supporters..."
"The government has not yet responded to the tribesmen's appeal, but admitted publicly last week that troops were backing local Pashtuns against the Uzbeks."
"The army had until then denied any role in the fighting, saying locals had risen up to drive out foreigners..."
"The authorities say fighting broke out after tribesmen accused Uzbek militants of criminal behaviour."

Blood and batons spur Pakistan row

If anything reveals how conflicted the structures of authority are in Pakistan it was the inability of the Media minister to restrain the destruction of the offices of a TV channel by the police. He even formally acknowledged his impotence on TV later that day. So what was the basis of the destruction of property by "14 low ranking police"? Is this what police do in Pakistan? It is hard to believe that it could have taken place without higher authority. The little men are not dumb;they knew what they were doing and they were following orders. Whose orders we may never know.
RLC

BBC News
By Masud Alam

"...a contingent of police in riot gear was smashing glass doors and equipment and firing tear gas shells inside the offices of a private TV channel ... the country's media minister was watching helplessly"
"...the minister, Mohammed Ali Durrani, arrived just after the police and tried to intervene - but they wouldn't listen to him."
"Later in the evening Mr Durrani faced the cameras, accepting his impotence and said that all he could do was to offer an apology."
"President Pervez Musharraf himself ... publicly [said he] regretted the police attack. He promised to identify and punish the culprits "
"14 low ranking police officials have been suspended"
"...the police raid looks more like a clear expression of state belligerence towards the media.The same channel had its high-profile discussion programme banned a day earlier. And three TV channels were briefly taken off air earlier in the week for running footage of bloody clashes between police and lawyers."